French opposition rivals agree to new vote

THE rivals in a bitter leadership row that split France's former ruling party, the rightwing UMP of Nicolas Sarkozy, have agreed to a new internal election after a contested first vote.

Jean-Francois Cope, the election's disputed victor, and his rival Francois Fillon, Sarkozy's former prime minister, said in a statement they had agreed to hold a new vote by October next year for the leadership of the Union for a Popular Movement.

"A new election for the presidency of the UMP will take place before the resumption of the regular parliamentary session of October 2013 at the latest," they said on Monday.

The deal aims to put an end to a month-long war that has threatened to bring about the collapse of the UMP, the political heir to the movement founded by Charles de Gaulle after World War II.

The post of party leader is seen as the inside track to a candidacy for the next presidential election in 2017.

Previously, Cope had refused any fresh vote before the 2014 local elections.

Fillon's spokesman, lawmaker Jerome Chartier, said in an address to the National Assembly that the rivals had struck a "clear, unambiguous deal" that would identify the party's "indisputable" leader.